Wednesday Writing Prompt

Dialogue is my favorite part of a story, whether I’m reading a story or writing one. I think that dialogue offers such an opportunity to get to the heart of a character. We all speak differently because of our personalities, our backgrounds, and the things that have influenced us along the way. Writing really good dialogue is a way of honoring your characters and their differences.

For this week’s writing prompt, focus in on dialogue. Develop a distinct (and distinctly different) voice for each of the characters in your story. It’s easy to let the dialogue we write become uniform or to let it be simply a reflection of our dialogue. Force yourself not to do that this week.

Now, you are free to use narration and prose in your story. But I challenge you to try to tell your whole story (or as much of it as you can) only through dialogue. This will force you to step up and polish those dialogue chops. For inspiration, I suggest reading Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” a short story that communicates a poignant message, engaging plot, and spot-on characterization, almost exclusively through dialogue.

Happy writing, friends!

– Annie

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Write, Write, Write – Wednesday’s Writing Prompt

For all you folks out there who want to get those creative juices flowing, here’s a quick and easy writing prompt to get you started… Remember, we (and other readers too!) want to read what you’ve written, so post your response to the comments (but no more than 250 words, so maybe just put a little teaser up for us to see).

Write a scene showing a man and a woman arguing over the man’s friendship with a former girlfriend. Do not mention the girlfriend, the woman, or the argument.

Enjoy!

–Ashley